hello 1st post - Vatican: Pope Benedict XVI to Resign on Feb. 28, 2013 - Washington DC channel 4 new

here is my first post that i found this morning:

www.nbcwashington.com...

Vatican: Pope Benedict XVI to Resign on Feb. 28
Monday, Feb 11, 2013 | Updated 6:35 AM ESTView Comments (0)

AP

Pope Benedict XVI pushes a button on a tablet brought to him at the end of his general audience Wednesday. It read: "Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart." As the countdown to his first tweet from his Twitter handle @Pontifex neared, the pope had garnered nearly 1 million followers in the eight languages of his account.
advertisement Pope Benedict XVI announced Monday he would resign Feb. 28, the first pontiff to do so in nearly 600 years. The decision sets the stage for a conclave to elect a new pope before the end of March.

The 85-year-old pope announced his decision in Latin during a meeting of Vatican cardinals Monday morning. Greg Burke, senior communication adviser to the Holy See, also confirmed his resignation to NBC News.

"After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths due to an advanced age are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry," he told the cardinals. "I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiriual nature, must be carried out not only by words and deeds but no less with prayer and suffering.

However, in today's world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of St. Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary — strengths which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately the ministry entrusted to me."

The last pope to resign was Pope Gregory XII, who stepped down in 1415 in a deal to end the Great Western Schism among competing papal claimants.

Benedict called his choice "a decision of great importance for the life of the church."

The move sets the stage for the Vatican to hold a conclave to elect a new pope by mid-March, since the traditional mourning time that would follow the death of a pope doesn't have to be observed.

There are several papal contenders in the wings, but no obvious front-runner as was the case when Benedict was elected pontiff in 2005 after the death of Pope John Paul II.

Copyright Associated Press

you should really refresh the new topics before you post...there are like 4-5 threads already on this subject.

Anyway...welcome

This is the Introductions thread, and as there are already a load of threads about this news already this one will probably be locked by the mods.

Welcome to ATS anyway.

Welcome to ATS.

While in general I don't have an issue with a topic coming up after it has been discussed previously (that's the nature of newbie posters to forums), you were beaten to this topic by about 4 other posters. you may want to alleviate the "Not this AGAIN" or "Use the search function newb" responses by checking those out and joining those discussions.

Hello and welcome!

miust watch this!

about the last pope and the end of the world

www.youtube.com...

reply to post by halojumper82


Hi halojumper82, and welcome to the Introductions Forum, a place to say hello to the ATS community.

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